By JON BAKER

PAWTUCKET  ---  Kelli Carlson had just put down her two-year-old son, Will, for a nap on a sultry August afternoon when she happened upon a Web site she never knew existed.

That’s when she noticed a “Who Is There For You?” essay contest offered by Advance America, Inc., and immediately began typing her feelings about a woman who has meant the world to her for nearly three years.
“The essay took about 10 minutes; they gave me 1,000 words to tell my story, but I really didn’t have to think about it,” said Carlson, a Pawtucket resident who together with Melinda Lopez-Tavares formed Helping Hands, Healing Hearts, a city-based organization for families with infants born with congenital heart defects.
“There have been a lot of people in my lifetime who have been really important to me, but from the time Will was born with the heart defect until now, it’s Melinda who I know I can talk to every day who just gets it,” she added. “Certainly, we both have family members who have been extremely supportive, but when you have somebody who you don’t have to justify your feelings to, it just makes that day — those days — much easier.”
Turns out, Carlson — a 33-year-old special education teacher at Franklin’s Jefferson Elementary School —discovered back on Nov. 12 that her composition about her nominee (Lopez-Tavares) had so impressed a panel of judges, they were deemed the winners of the national contest, one that drew 6,000 entries, all submitted between July 14 and Oct. 21.
On Nov. 20, at Pawtucket’s Advance America, Inc.’s center on Armistice Boulevard, both received first-place, grand-prize checks of $25,000. They were chosen for a “clear demonstration of assistance, good will and an ability to motivate others.”
“It was about 4 p.m., and I had received an e-mail at school (from officials at Advance America headquarters in Greenville, S.C.) stating I was one of the finalists, and I needed to call immediately,” Carlson noted. “This was right after a staff meeting, and there were about six teachers in the room.
“When I returned that call, I was put on hold for about five minutes, which was rather irritating,” she chuckled. “A woman came back on, and said, “Kelli? I now have you on speaker phone, and everyone is here with me.’ That’s when she told me I wasn’t a finalist, but we had won. I was, like, ‘What? Are you kidding?’ and all the teachers in the room were doing back flips down the hall. I was flipping out, too.”
Contacting Lopez-Tavares, a Warwick resident, about being a co-owner of $50,000 was more difficult than writing the essay.
“To be honest, my husband, Scott, had lost his job in October, and we had a lot of bill collectors calling,” Lopez-Tavares admitted Thursday night. “I didn’t recognize Kelli’s work number, so I wasn’t about to pick up. Finally, she called from her cell as she was driving home, and she said, ‘What kind of day are you having?’ I just told her, ‘Everything’s fine. Why?’ She just said, ‘It’s about to get way better than fine!’
“When she told me, I started screaming and laughing,” she added. “I had been in the bathroom/laundry room, and my kids (including nine-year-old Jaxon and nearly three-year-old Joseph) came to the door and yelled, ‘Mommy, what’s wrong?’ I just told them, ‘Nothing, kids. Mommy’s just really happy!’”

How it started
Kelli and husband Derek discovered less than 18 hours after son Will was born at Women’s & Infants Hospital on Dec. 17, 2005 that doctors had diagnosed him with a congenital heart defect, and — later — two more. One included Wolfe-Parkinson-White Syndrome. Physicians warned them — after sending them home on Dec. 23 — to keep a close eye on him.
During the evening hours of Christmas Day, they noticed Will wasn’t breathing normally, so rushed him to Hasbro Children’s Hospital. The next day, when they believed their son would die after another episode of WPW, they requested a transfer to Boston Children’s Hospital, and Will eventually became better following a surgery for a more serious condition called Mitral Valve Regurgitation.
In mid-March, the Carlsons took Will back to Boston for four days of testing before a slated surgery. That’s when they found the mitral valve had begun compensating for the deformity.
“Doctors said they didn’t know why, but that it was a great find,” Kelli said back in September. “They were going to postpone surgery indefinitely … We were so thrilled.”
Lopez-Tavares’ son, Joseph, who came into this world on Dec. 23, 2005, wasn’t as lucky.
“I remember, six days after Will was born at Women’s & Infants, we were getting our discharge orders when we saw a baby being rushed into the bed space next to where Will had been,” Kelli said then. “They brought in a priest, and wheeled in the baby’s mother to say, ‘Goodbye.’ They were rushing him to Boston. I tried not to watch, but you do anyway.”
Just after Christmas, Kelli – also in Boston with Will – recognized the mom and asked if her son had been born in Providence. “She looked at me like, ‘Who the heck are you? Why are you talking to me?’ I said, ‘My son was in the bed next to yours,’ and we quickly started talking about us being from Rhode Island, and how our boys were both born with CHDs.”
It didn’t take long for the relationship to grow, and the duet later created “Helping Hands, Healing Hearts,” which now caters to over two dozen families from Woonsocket to Westerly, Cranston north to Canton and Norwood.
When asked how the money will be spent, Kelli Carlson admitted her family needed it for monthly bills and the like, as hospitalizations have cost them hundreds of thousands dollars in insurance and out of the couple’s pockets.
“This puts us in a position where we as a family, our budget isn’t so tight every month,” she claimed. “It allows us a little breathing space, peace of mind, to put more energy into promoting our organization, which brings together those who have children with CHDs and provides parental coping mechanisms.
“As for Christmas, we’re not going to go overboard; we’ll put some money away for Will’s college education, and also save for when he needs his first open-heart surgery, which will happen,” she added.
Offered Melinda, who has yet to return to her job as a teacher: “My husband, Scott, lost his job as a computer programmer on Oct. 20, and he’s having a very difficult time finding another. When we found out about the money, we knew we weren’t going to lose our house, as we (with help of insurance) have spent over a million dollars on Joseph’s three surgeries. Now we know we can hold on for a while.”
The contest had been designed to celebrate the creative, ingenious ideas of people to help others in times of crisis.
“Everyone needs someone they can count on – a family member who picks us up when we’re down or a friend who champions our successes,” said Ken Compton, Advance America’s CEO. “Our company is proud to recognize the importance of these individuals (also called ‘Everyday Heroes’) and the quiet, often unnoticed good deeds that improve the lives and communities of countless Americans.

“In her winning submission, Carlson described the profound role Lopez-Tavares has played in her life: ‘I don’t know what I would do without Melinda. She is truly an amazing person who doesn’t recognize her own strength … She’s an example of what a true friend should be, and a shining example of how to live in the face of adversity. She is my dear friend, and – while we both wish that our sons were not born with heart defects, I know that I would not give her up for anything.’”

When asked if she considered herself an “everyday hero,” Kelli stated, “I don’t feel like one. To me, running the group and meeting other heart families is really the only way I can make sense of this happening to Will, and it gives us a purpose.

“This organization came to be because we were fortunate enough to find each other, and have each other to deal with this horrible experience. We now have the power to make sure others don’t have to go through this alone.”

Offered Melinda: “I think our kids are the heroes. Since their births, they’ve been subjected to medical treatments and stress that no child should have to experience. Helping Hands, Healing Hearts is designed to raise awareness of CHDs, and that eventually should translate to research money for better treatments, even a cure.

“The staff of Advance America made it a point to tell us how much Kelli’s essay affected them, and they genuinely expressed the happiness they felt that our story was told. They were so sincere, and that thrills me.”